That Inverted Bowl We Call the Sky by Rigel (PG)

[paian]

Rec Category: Daniel Jackson
Character: Daniel Jackson, Kasuf, Sha're
Category: Abydos, Daniel Jackson, Daniel/Sha're, pre-series, Sha're
Warning: None
Author on LJ: rigel_7
Author's Website: Fanfiction Index
Link: That Inverted Bowl We Call the Sky

Author's summary: She had bound him. Tethered his life to her own.


Why This Must Be Read:

Today in the Daniel Jackson category, it's two fics where Daniel is seen through others' eyes. This one is a strikingly lovely look at Daniel through Sha'uri's eyes, seventeen days after Kasuf sent her in "to appease the emissary of the gods" -- when they are still sweetly new to each other, but so many of Daniel's most defining characteristics are already charmingly and forebodingly evident.

The fic draws a vivid picture of Abydos, with lush sensory detail and the suggestion of far cities, intimations of how much more world there is beyond the settlement near the gate that has become Daniel's home. Descriptions of weather and terrain, significant objects, imagery and symbolism and thematic conceits resonate with each other and wind around each other, echoing the binding that Sha'uri's sympathetic magic tries to cinch tight. But the beauty has a bitter bite of foreknowledge -- ours and that of the augur in the fic and, beautifully and sadly to her credit, Sha'uri's. This is the Daniel who will never stop digging in the sand to reach beyond the sky, the Daniel whose curiosity and restlessness will shake the galaxy, and Sha'uri already senses what it will cost her. Tragedy is as far off, now, as those far cities, and as implicitly present, part of the warp and woof of their otherwise peaceful, happy lives.

1807 words.

Excerpt:

Daniel sat outlined in shadow, limned against the soft and creeping dark as if it were a cloak settled around his shoulders. Even his features seemed to recede. She saw the merest suggestion of a nose, but when he shifted his weight, the glow from the coals would catch at the clear glass across his eyes, giving his cheeks a rosy hue.

He had said he was not a god, this man she had wed. But Skaara had shown her fire blossoming in his hand and tubes that spat death with a deafening roar. The suq was full of pointed murmurings; these things were surely from the world beyond. And who could deny that he had set the sky afire with a great power as he defeated Ra?

And yet ...

She had seen him bleed.

She had touched it to her lips and tasted the metal and salt there, bringing the waking dreams that refused to be pushed away.